Religion and enmity in Ireland: Institutions and relational beliefs

Opinions differ as to the role of religion in the Northern Ireland conflict. In this article, religion is located at different levels: institutionally, in the indirect contribution of the Roman Catholic Church and in the direct one of the Orange societies; doctrinally and particularly, in the covenant tradition of fundamentalist Protestantism; at the level of relational beliefs, though especially on the Protestant side; and at the level of cultures produced at the interface between relational religious and national-political beliefs. The way religion connects to politics and conflict is different for each of the two dominant blocs of interests: Irish Catholic Nationalist and Republican on the one hand, and Ulster Protestant Unionist and Loyalist on the other. The role of the Catholic Church can only be understood if the relationships between the two peoples of Ireland as a whole are taken into account, alongside those within Northern Ireland itself.